5.4.8 Hotfixes: July 22

July 22

Creatures

• Kurtok the Slayer's health has been reduced to be slightly less menacing to the denizens of Northshire.
   

June 24

Battlegrounds and Arenas

• Deserter debuff
  • Deserter debuff now lasts 5 minutes (down from 20 minutes). New applications of the Deserter debuff within a 20-minute rolling window extends its duration by 5 additional minutes each time, up to a maximum of 20 minutes.
  • The Deserter debuff is applied under the following conditions:
    • Arena or Rated Battlegrounds: Leaving the queue, ignoring the prompt to enter when the match is ready, or leaving the match before anyone has entered combat.
    • Battlegrounds: Leaving before the match is over. 
  • Additional information on the change to the Deserter debuff can be found in the forum thread titled Upcoming Deserter Hotfixes for Rated PvP.
     

June 17

Creatures

• NPC vendors selling Tier-16 armor pieces now have significantly more health.

Items

• Fire-Watcher's Oath: Players transformed into an Ordon Fire-Watcher now have a 100% chance to gain Bloody Coins on killing-blows against level-90 characters. Note that there's still a short internal-cooldown on earning Bloody Coins.
• Nightmarish Hitching Post is now usable in Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue where the Nightmarish Reins buff could cause players on a flight path to travel slowly.
• Resolved an issue where players may receive duplicate letters in-game for purchases made on the store.
   

June 13

• Censer of Eternal Agony now has a cooldown of 1 hour when used (up from 10 minutes).
• Fire-Watcher's Oath now has a cooldown of 10 minutes (down from 1 hour) and costs 100 Timeless Coins to purchase (costs 50 Bloody Coins previously). The Ordon Fire-Watcher transformation now allows mount usage and Druid shapeshifting and significantly reduced the internal cooldown on earning Bloody Coins.
  • For more information on this change, please see the forum thread titled: Recent Bloody Coins Hotfixes.

Timeless Isle

• Non-rare creatures and NPCs on lower areas of Timeless Isle should now respawn more frequently.
   

June 9

• Borrowed Brew: Resolved an issue that could cause players to be unable to see Lorewalker Cho after consuming Mouthwatering Brew.

Bug Fix

• Resolved an issue where the Heart of the Valorous buff was not correctly persisting through death.
   

June 4

• Queuing for a non-random Normal Scenario now awards 30 Justice Points on completion (down from 70 Justice Points).
   

June 3

• Siege of Orgrimmar
  • Resolved an issue where Kor'kron Shaman's Treasure was not dropping in Flexible difficulty.

Battlegrounds and Arenas

• Ethereal Soul-Trader can no longer be summoned while in an Arena or Battleground.
   

May 27

Battlegrounds and Arenas

• Characters in a Tanking specialization in a Rated Battleground now take 50% additional damage (up from 20%) while holding an orb in Temple of Kotmogu or escorting a mine cart in Deepwind Gorge.

Items

• Black Grasp of the Destroyer's drain mana effect no longer affects targets above level 73.
• Soul Breaker's drain mana effect no longer affects targets above level 63.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue where credit for the achievement: Going To Need A Bigger Bag was not tracking correctly across characters on the account.
• Resolved an issue where a graveyard near wreckage of the Silver Dawn in Darkshore was automatically resurrecting players after releasing.
   

May 21

• Resolved an issue where the Rated Battleground flag carrier debuff functioned incorrectly. Characters in a Tanking specialization should now correctly take 50% additional damage while carrying a flag in a Rated Battleground.

Items

• Replica General's Leather Treads no longer increases the duration of Sprint in Arenas or Rated Battlegrounds.
• Burdens of Eternity may no longer be used while inside a Heroic Dungeon, Raid, or Scenario.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue where Feats of Strength for Collector's Edition: Dread Raven and Collector’s Edition: Dread Hatchling were not being correctly awarded to players.
• Resolved an issue where players transitioning from Eastern Plaguelands into Ghostlands while on certain flying mounts would be unable to resummon the mount until they relog back in.

Timeless Isle

• Non-rare creatures and NPCs on lower areas of Timeless Isle should now respawn more frequently.

Quests

• Borrowed Brew: Resolved an issue that could cause players to be unable to see Lorewalker Cho after consuming Mouthwatering Brew.

Creatures

• NPC vendors selling Tier-16 armor pieces now have significantly more health.
• Kurtok the Slayer's health has been reduced to be slightly less menacing to the denizens of Northshire.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Siege of Orgrimmar
  • Resolved an issue where Kor'kron Shaman's Treasure was not dropping in Flexible difficulty.
• Scenarios
  • Queuing for a non-random Normal Scenario now awards 30 Justice Points on completion (down from 70 Justice Points).

Battlegrounds and Arenas

• Deserter debuff
  • Deserter debuff now lasts 5 minutes (down from 20 minutes) and can stack up to 4 times. New applications of the Deserter debuff within a 20-minute rolling window extends its duration by 5 additional minutes each time, up to a maximum of 20 minutes.
  • The Deserter debuff is applied under the following conditions:
    • Arena or Rated Battlegrounds: Leaving the queue, ignoring the prompt to enter when the match is ready, or leaving the match before anyone has entered combat.
    • Battlegrounds: Leaving before the match is over.
  • Additional information on the change to the Deserter debuff can be found in the forum thread titled Upcoming Deserter Hotfixes for Rated PvP.
• Ethereal Soul-Trader can no longer be summoned while in an Arena or Battleground.
• Characters in a Tanking specialization in a Rated Battleground now take 50% additional damage (up from 20%) while holding an orb in Temple of Kotmogu or escorting a mine cart in Deepwind Gorge.
• Resolved an issue where the Rated Battleground flag carrier debuff functioned incorrectly. Characters in a Tanking specialization should now correctly take 50% additional damage while carrying a flag in a Rated Battleground.

Items

• Fire-Watcher's Oath: Players transformed into an Ordon Fire-Watcher now have a 100% chance to gain Bloody Coins on killing-blows against level-90 characters. Note that there's still a short internal-cooldown on earning Bloody Coins.
• Nightmarish Hitching Post is now usable in Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds.
• Censer of Eternal Agony now has a cooldown of 1 hour when used (up from 10 minutes).
• Fire-Watcher's Oath now has a cooldown of 10 minutes (down from 1 hour) and costs 100 Timeless Coins to purchase (costs 50 Bloody Coins previously). The Ordon Fire-Watcher transformation now allows mount usage and Druid shapeshifting and significantly reduced the internal cooldown on earning Bloody Coins.
  • For more information on this change, please see the forum thread titled: Recent Bloody Coins Hotfixes.
• Black Grasp of the Destroyer's drain mana effect no longer affects targets above level 73.
• Soul Breaker's drain mana effect no longer affects targets above level 63.
• Replica General's Leather Treads no longer increases the duration of Sprint in Arenas or Rated Battlegrounds.
• Burdens of Eternity may no longer be used while inside a Heroic Dungeon, Raid, or Scenario.

Bug Fixes

• Resolved an issue where the Nightmarish Reins buff could cause players on a flight path to travel slowly.
• Resolved an issue where players may receive duplicate letters in-game for purchases made on the store.
• Resolved an issue where the Heart of the Valorous buff was not correctly persisting through death.
• Resolved an issue where credit for the achievement: Going To Need A Bigger Bag was not tracking correctly across characters on the account.
• Resolved an issue where a graveyard near wreckage of the Silver Dawn in Darkshore was automatically resurrecting players after releasing.
• Resolved an issue where Feats of Strength for Collector's Edition: Dread Raven and Collector’s Edition: Dread Hatchling were not being correctly awarded to players.
• Resolved an issue where players transitioning from Eastern Plaguelands into Ghostlands while on certain flying mounts would be unable to resummon the mount until they relog back in.

Updated May 19

Classes

• Druid
  • Resolved an issue where Cat Form's movement speed bonus was stacking incorrectly with Warrior's version of Stampeding Shout granted via Symbiosis.
• Rogue
  • Burst of Speed can now be activated to remove movement-slowing effects even if another movement speed bonus such as Sprint is already present (the speed bonuses will still not stack).

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

• Siege of Orgrimmar
  • General Nazgrim
    • General Nazgrim no longer calls in an additional wave of forces at 10% health on Raid Finder difficulty.
  • Garrosh Hellscream
    • Increased berserk timer for Garrosh Hellscream to 25 minutes (up from 18 minutes) on Raid Finder difficulty.

Items

• All upgradable epic quality items introduced in Patch 5.4 (items found in Siege of Orgrimmar and Timeless Isle) are now eligible to be upgraded an additional 2 times for a total increase of 16 item levels.
• Heirloom weapons awarded by Garrosh Hellscream have been increased by 8 item levels to keep them competitive with the additional 2 upgrade levels given to other items.
• Mistweaver Ai on the Timeless Isle next to the Celestial Court now sells a token called Deeds of Valor for 3000 Timeless Coins. When used, Deeds of Valor grants 100 Valor Points to the character, up to the 1000 Valor Point maximum per week.
• For additional details behind this change, please check out the forum thread titled: Gear Changes in Patch 5.4.8.

UI

• UI Add-Ons are no longer able to update a number of CVars while the player is in combat. A complete listing of CVars affected by this change can be found in the forum thread titled: 5.4.8 Changes to CVars While In-Combat.

Achievements

• Going to Need a Bigger Bag is now an account-wide achievement and items obtained by all characters on the account now contribute credit towards completion. This means the achievement can be completed by obtaining all the required items across multiple characters instead of having a single character obtain all the items needed.